One Year After Jan. 6, Democracy is Still On the Line

One year ago this month, on Jan. 6, 2021, I was on the House floor preparing to play a small but important role in what, until that day, had always been a hallmark of American democracy: the peaceful transfer of power. I was one of four House members that Speaker Nancy Pelosi had asked to manage the opposition to efforts to decertify the results of the 2020 presidential election. I had six arguments and six rebuttals to make on the challenges to the electors from six different states, and that was my focus.

So in that moment, I really wasn’t paying attention to what was happening outside the building, to the growing mass of rioters and their efforts to break into the United States Capitol. It was not until our leadership was removed from the chamber, and Capitol police announced we needed to take out our gas masks and prepare to get down on the ground that I understood the full extent of the danger we were in.

When the order came to evacuate, I stayed behind for awhile to allow others to leave first. But as members and their staff filed out ahead, one of my Republican colleagues had a dark warning: “You can’t let them see you.”

“I know these people, I can talk to these people … you’re in a whole different category,” another said.

For just a moment, I was touched by what seemed to be genuine concern for my safety. But very quickly, my reaction turned to anger. Because if the Republican Party hadn’t spent the preceding two months dangerously stoking the Big Lie about our election, none of us would have to have be concerned about violence – let alone being in the grip of a violent insurrection.

Thanks to the courage of law enforcement officers, we returned to the chamber that night to finish our work and certify the results. And so our democracy moved forward – weakened, yes, defiled even, by the shameful actions of the insurrectionists and their cohorts in the GOP congressional ranks … but not lost.

I prayed that this solemn anniversary would be a reawakening of our devotion to our democracy, that it would serve as the most potent reminder that the freedoms we enjoy are not an inevitable birthright bequeathed by our Founders, but a treasure to be jealously guarded and defended by each new generation. And that includes the greatest treasure of all: the right to vote.

Yet today, one party soldiers on with its coordinated, insidious attack on access to the ballot box. Using the Big Lie, Republican-led states have spent the past year ushering in a new generation of voter suppression laws designed to make it harder for people – particularly people of color and other marginalized communities – to vote.

And while Democrats in the House have continued to act – most recently by passing the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act – last week we were let down when 52 senators prioritized the archaic filibuster rule over our democracy.

It was a disheartening blow. But we cannot lose our resolve to protect America’s democracy. We must keep the pressure on the senate and the President to act. Local and state officials must answer the call and step up where the senate has failed. And the American people must rise up, too, in a groundswell of engagement too massive to suppress.

History will remember which side we were on. It will remember fondly those who recognized this moment of profound peril and rose to meet it. And it will remember those who failed to do so, who will see their legacies forever marred by their inaction.

As Americans, we have a very proud legacy to cherish; it’s time we remembered that. It’s time we defended our democracy, like our lives, our liberties and our very happiness depended upon it. Because they do.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) represents California’s 28th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.